Sunday, December 22, 2013

Moonshine (Distillation of Consciousness and the Dharma of Duck Dynasty)

Distillation is a process that can be used to break down a liquid substance to a base. Distillation is how people make whiskey, and how scientists break down chemicals. This process has been around for thousands of years, ironically the first moonshiner in the United States was George Washington who was also a Freemason. Freemasonry was based upon Western mysticism which included alchemy. Alchemy is the process of using Mercury, salt and water to create gold by breaking down each substance and trying to get them to intermingle with the others. The idea of alchemy can be found throughout many cultures such as Egyptian, Chinese, European and probably a few others that I’m not even aware of. So it is no surprise Freemasons like George Washington would be down with making some moonshine. So what does this have to do with consciousness, and duck Dynasty? Well it has a lot to do with consciousness and very little to do with Duck Dynasty. However, I do have something to say about Phil Robinson’s comments that I’ll mention at the end of this blog post. I could be lying just so you keep reading. Either way you’ll have to read entire post to find out.

So what is the distillation of consciousness, and why do it? The answer is simple because the awareness that everybody experiences is a great mystery. Even with all the tools that science has created we still don’t know anything about awareness. Is awareness energy? Is awareness a soul? Does it die with our body? Does it continue on after the body dies? Does it return to an infinite sea of consciousness, like a drop of water returning to the ocean? The truth is we don’t know, so why not approach this question the same way science would? That would be to distill consciousness all the way down to its basic purist element. The most popular methodology of distilling one’s consciousness that is commonly used is meditation.

We sit still for a long period of time without any distractions; until all we are left with is our awareness. Most of the time the mind is busy with discriminating thoughts, such as I like this I don’t like that, or oh fuck I forgot to pay the rent. Mind is always thinking and the harder we tried to stop it, the more active it becomes. So therefore, one of the most important steps to meditation is just learning sit with whatever’s present in the moment rather than fight the mind, just watch it without engaging with the thoughts that arise or judging them. At some point we will catch ourselves thinking about this or that, the trick here is not to beat ourselves up but simply just come back to home base which is usually our breath. What happens over a period of time is the mind slows down, and we find gaps between thoughts. It is in these gaps really see a glimpse of what our true awareness is like. It is only through this direct experience, that we were able to explore consciousness. Meditation gives us the opportunity to see what awareness looks like without the impurities of our own thoughts. Another form of meditation is simply being fully engaged in the present moment. For example while playing guitar there is no separation between me and the music I am playing, a lot of the time I am only playing for what seems like five minutes but when I look at the clock I discovered an hour has passed because so I am so fully engaged in what I was doing. This is something that we all experience without even trying. And if we are trying to experience it, the effort itself becomes a roadblock.

When we distill consciousness by letting the impurities filter themselves out we are left with is pure awareness. What I find most profound about this is my pure awareness is no different than somebody else’s pure awareness. The only thing that separates us is the thinking mind. The Dalai Lama and Hitler both share the same pure awareness. It is almost impossible for us to conceive this because we cannot grasp the mind with the mind. However, if my awareness is the same as someone else’s and whatever I do to them, I am also doing to myself. This is a great foundation for the golden rule to do onto others as you would want them to do unto you. When we are aware that there is no separation the golden rule becomes almost natural. It is like the old Buddhist analogy there is one moon in the sky in one thousand bowls of water reflecting the moon. Now that is what I call moonshine. It all the same moon.

The only reason I included Duck Dynasty in the title of my post is because rednecks and moonshine go together and so I get ranked higher in Google. As for Phil Robinson’s comments in GQ magazine about homosexuality, that his quote from the Bible. All I can say is that he’s never slapped a hand full of Crisco in a man’s ass and slid into the home base so doesn’t know is talking about, if you know what mean.